Mother-of-two told she had 'a week to live' after suffering extreme fatigue

By Emily Lefroy| 7 months ago

A UK mother-of-two who had been suffering from exhaustion for over a decade was informed by doctors she had just a week to live.

Michele Burgess had previously been told her fatigue was related to gastro problems, but after she collapsed on the way to a scan and had a seizure last year, it became apparent how sick she was.

Doctors told the 56-year-old was her liver had failed, and that unless a donor was found quickly, she could be looking at just weeks to live.

Last year, the teacher's assistant from Gloucestershire reached a point where she was so tired she could barely make it through the day, sometimes going to bed by 3pm.

"I could hardly carry on. My short-term memory started fading," Burgess told the Birmingham Mail, adding she often lost her appetite.

Michele and Luke Burgess. (justgiving.com)

It was eventually determined that she had high blood pressure that was causing her liver to fail.

Burgess was placed on a 'super-urgent' transplant list and luckily, a match was found almost immediately. She learned she had non-cirrhotic portal hypertension, meaning her liver wasn't filtering and was clogged up.

"They don't really know what caused it, but I would definitely need a transplant," she said.